


Recounting

by Churbooseanon



Series: Partings and Reunions [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-02-25 10:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2619095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Churbooseanon/pseuds/Churbooseanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of short, unrelated stories further building the world of Partings and Reunions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Look, Don't Touch - Connie, South

**Author's Note:**

> A first meeting between South and Connie.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexa tries to swoop in to the rescue. Connie beats her to the punch.

It's not that she thinks she needs to save the small woman at the bar. It's that Alexa does not take well to men all but forcing themselves on clearly uninterested parties. 

And it's not like Alexa, South to some, thinks she needs to handle these situations with violence. It's just that last night she had to watch a guy punch her twin brother for flirting with him, she's been watching this asshole not take the clue the small brunette woman had been feeding him for five minutes, and that Lacey wasn't around to keep her from doing something stupid. 

The little woman moves as Alexa starts forward. The man's reaching out to grab her arm, and Alexa watches in shock as the woman's arm comes up, hand angled back to present the base of it, and with a speed even South has trouble following the woman slams it into the man's face with damn good form. 

Alexa watches with a smile, not even breaking stride as the man staggers back with a cry of pain, his hands coming up to cover his face. His bloody face. His broken nose. Damn. That was funny as all hell.

She makes it there in time for the man to reach out for the small woman. Finally she steps in, grabbing that arm and twisting it quickly up behind the man's back, just edging on doing real damage. 

"I think she told you pretty clearly to leave her alone," South laughs in his ear, then turns the man, puts a boot to his ass, and kicks him toward the door. He staggers away and doesn't turn back to them. 

"I could have handled him," the small woman says. 

"I absolutely don't doubt that," Alexa laughs. "You did a damn fine job. Just didn't want you killing the poor guy before he got the point. Name's Alexa."

The smile she gets is wide and warm and cheerful. And the look in those eyes is one that says the woman, hair an undercut on one side and long on the other, believes Alexa. 

"Connie," she offers along with her hand. 

"Let me buy you a drink. To celebrate your victory."

"Alright," Connie answers. "But if you get too close, well, I'll break more than your nose."

"You know what, Connie? I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."


	2. Don't Stare - Caboose, Simmons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caboose gives relationship advice.

"You know… staring at him won’t help."

Simmons’ head turns so quickly to Caboose at the other end of the lockers, his eyes insanely wide as he stares at the other man.

"W-what!? I’m not staring!" Simmons protests, voice going loud and squeaky. "You’re staring!"

Caboose sighed and shook his head as he closed his locker, and before SImmons knew it there was a large hand on his shoulder and Caboose was there, shaking his head sadly.

"He can’t love you back if he doesn’t know there is love in the first place."

With that Caboose walked off and Simmons was left staring after him.

When had Caboose started to sound like a voice of reason?


	3. Missed Calling - South, North

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexa comforts her twin, and he can't help but make a joke.

"I think you missed your calling," he sighs at the pleasure of his twin’s fingers in his hair. Her fingers are warmth massaged in circles into his scalp and he can’t help but smile at the look of indignation he catches from her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Your hands are the hands of a hair washer at a high end salon."

The quick, painful tug of his hair is worth her laughter. More worth his.


	4. Already Broken - Wash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David can't stand the person he sees.

David doesn’t like to look at himself in the mirror.

There aren’t even shadows of the injuries on his skin. Except for the scar, of course. None of the marks were lasting. None of the broken bones show up. They are gone when the cast comes off.

He can still see them when he looks in the mirror. Can still see bruises on his stomach, a cast on his arm, on his leg, a black eye that…

David turns away from his mirror. He doesn’t need to look at it. He hates the man he sees in the glass.


	5. Attention Divided - Wash/York/North

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shaun doesn't think the new pet is very nice.

"You know he’s never going to look at us again, right?"

Alex chuckles warmly and just holds Shaun tighter against him.

"I’m not even kidding, Alex," Shaun sighs, shaking his head and settling against the older of his lovers. "Look at him. I think he bought half of those toys for himself. Little Epsilon doesn’t even seem to want to play. And I do.”

"Shush," Alex purrs in Shaun’s ear, enjoys the way Shaun shudders against him at it. "After everything, he deserves something simple and uncomplicated."

"You’re right," Shaun agrees, shaking his head. "Does that mean you’re going to pamper me instead?"

"If you behave."


	6. Long Distance Relationship - South, North

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexa and Alex try hard to stay in contact while he's in Australia.

"So what’s it looking like tomorrow?"

Alex rolls his eyes, groans, and shoots a dirty look at his camera, and Alexa has to chuckle at his expression. If looks could kill she’s pretty sure she would be having a heart attack right at that moment.

"It is fucking five in the morning. I don’t have time for your bullshit cheeriness," Alex snaps and all Alexa could do was laugh at him. There was nothing quite like that time first thing in the morning when her twin’s true colors came out. When he wasn’t that sweet, accommodating, gentle, kind sort of guy that people walked all over. His temper flared in the mornings on par with hers, and it was fun to be the target of it when he couldn’t fling pillows at her head.

"Maybe there, but it’s about one in the afternoon here. Yesterday afternoon," Alexa openly laughs, and watches her brother grimace in a familiar way. "Ouch, someone went out drinking last night, didn’t he?"

"Yeah," Alex sighs, and she watches as he gets to his feet and shuffles away from the camera into somewhere else in his hotel room, probably to find aspirin. "Went out last night with Jimmy. His girlfriend called to break up with him."

"Ouch," Alexa answers, wincing a little. "The girlfriend he yacks your ears off talking about every day?"

"And every night," Alex confirms. "As if his is the only relationship ever in the world, and as if he’s the only one ever to have their life on hold for someone. Speaking of…"

She hopes that he can’t see the screen from wherever he’s gotten to, because she can see the way she winces in the picture of her in the corner. There were things you just couldn’t do long distance. Like breaking up with someone. Like telling your twin brother who was absolutely smitten with their neighbor that had started dating an asshole…

"Speaking of what?"

"David," Alex groans, appearing back in front of the screen with a steaming mug of what had to be shitty hotel coffee. "Speaking of David…"

"I don’t remember starting a conversation about David," Alexa smiles playfully.

Alex rolls his eyes, and then winces. “How is David?”

"You know, the only thing I ever ask Connie about when I see her is how David is. How did you know?"

"Seriously can’t you just listen to me for half a moment?"

Alexa sighs and leans back in her desk chair and looks up at the ceiling. She should be out there in the gym, working with her students. Should be training her new instructor, should be having lunch with Connie. Instead she’s here, in the dark of her office, because it’s the only time she can get to sit there and hear her brother’s voice. See his face.

She hates it when he’s gone. She hates it when his job takes him out of the country, and hates it even more when it puts them in awkward places like this. Where it’s five in the morning with him and one in the afternoon for her, and this is the only time they can find to talk.

"David," she says at last, looking down at him. "David is… doing better I think. He’s fitting in better at the cafe. There’s… a new guy in town making moves on Daniel, and David seems to go out drinking with him sometimes? I think it happened because the guy sits there at the cafe a lot, waiting for Daniel. Military guy that just got back. He seems to be doing David some good."

"And his ex?"

That was a topic Alexa hated bringing up with her girlfriend. “Alright, that… is touchier. Connie says he tried calling her recently. She chewed him out. That’s really all I’ve got.”

"Alright. I…"

There’s a knock at his door and Alex groans. “I’ve got to take a shower. That will be Jimmy to complain about his headache. Talk later?”

"Later," she agrees softly. "Have a good day, bro."

"Yeah," he smiles wearily and Alexa sighs as the screen goes dark.

Ten days left and she doesn’t know what to do with herself anymore.


	7. First Kiss - York, Delta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shaun gives Daniel his first kiss.

The problem he thinks, is that there are assumptions that exist in Shaun’s head that have no basis in reality.

No. The problem, he realizes, is that they’ve been talking about Shaun’s failed relationships all evening. That Shaun has been talking about how his latest try has failed. That his siblings are teasing him. That maybe he should stop going after girls that…

And then there they were, lips warm and soft against his. Shaun’s hands in his hair, holding him close even as Daniel’s hands come up to push him away. Force him away until Shaun actually moves and Daniel scoots away from his friend on the floor and stares at him in horror. His fingers come shaking to his lips and quiver there, confused by the lingering warmth.

"Shit, D, I’m… I’m…"

“Qu’est-ce au nom de Dieu était que?” Daniel demands in shock.

"Come on, Danny, you know I can’t speak a word of French."

"Vous devriez avoir pensé à ça avant de me embrasser!" he shouts angrily.

"D, you’re scaring me."

"Vous n’êtes pas censé être mon premier baiser!"

"I fucked up, didn’t I?"

"YES!"


	8. Alternate Scene - Interlude One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An alternate take on how the coffee Nate and Daniel share in Interlude One could have gone.

Daniel chuckled, and the sound was musical and with it Nate was absolutely certain of what he had only suspected before.

Of course the realization didn’t really help him know just how to handle the simple fact that he was starting to fall in love with someone. Plus the realization went a long way to explaining other things. Like how two hours seemed to pass without him really noticing anything but Daniel’s voice, his eyes, the attractive curve of his cheekbones and the way he stirred his coffee without paying attention to it while he spoke, or sipped when he was clearly looking for time to think. Those tiny sorts of details were things that Nate had never dared to think of before, not in someone else, not even when he was looking for a way to take someone down. So there he was, two hours later, ears long since filled with mindless pleasantries and an amusing debate on coffee versus tea, his cheeks sore from how much he had been smiling. 

It was a perfect day, a perfect few hours, with the jumpy young waiter filling and refilling their drinks and Daniel just… beaming. 

To bad the other man’s phone chimed. 

“What is it?” Nate asked, frowning as Daniel caught his phone up and stared at the screen. His concern faded as Daniel blushed and he put the phone back down. 

_“My… best friend has been worried about this,”_ Daniel admitted quietly, slipping back into French. _“I’ve never spent so much time with a stranger before.”_

_“I’m not sure I count considering the fact that I’ve literally told you things like my favorite color and military nickname.”_

_“Maine is hardly a nickname to be ashamed of,”_ Daniel laughed cheerfully. _“Anyway, I… well, he’s waiting over there to watch out for me, and he’s decided I don’t need a guardian angel or something.”_

Even as Daniel spoke a man with dark hair and a tan coat across the cafe rose, threw some money down on a table and called his goodbyes to the employees. For half a moment Nate’s eyes met the one good eye of the man across the cafe, and the smile he found there was a welcoming one. Well… approval from the best friend had to go far, right? He assumed that guy was the best friend. It made the most sense. 

When he was gone Nate found himself wanting to reach out. He gently touched Daniel’s hand, and instead of blushing, he found that hand turned over in his, nervously accepting, even welcoming the touch. 

“I hate to say it, but I have to get going,” Nate quietly admitted. He didn’t, but what he wanted needed this.

“I’d really rather you didn’t,” Daniel answered, voice just as quiet. 

“But I’m going to go out on a limb and ask if you’d join me for dinner tonight. Or tomorrow. Or any day this week. Think… that might be good for you?”

The way Daniel smiled at him was just blindingly beautiful. And all the answer he needed.


End file.
